Meet EI: Q + A with Meije Gernezback to all NEWS

This week, we sat down with Meije Gernez, a Research Director in our San Francisco office, to talk about how she ended up in research and analytics, her transition from London to the West Coast,and her number #1 passion project. Enjoy!

What’s your role at Edelman Intelligence? What kind of work do you do?

Research Director—I like to focus on really client centric work, whether it be the development of an IP to support a client on their thought leadership journey or an audience segmentation to help inform strategy for their next big shift, placing the client’s needs, ambitions, and long term goals at the center of the work is what I find most interesting and rewarding.

Previous places of employment?

I’ve been with EI for nearly 6 years now and came from the world of Academia and NGOs. In my last position I held a research role where I analyzed shifting gender roles in rapidly urbanizing pastoral cultures in the horn of Africa through an organization called PENHA.

You transitioned from our London office to the West Coast. Tell us about your decision and the unique opportunity to do so.

I love London and it will forever be one of my homes—but we (me and my family) were ready to face new challenges, environments, and opportunities. The decision was also prompted by Antoine’s constant reminder that EI is a global network and he values cross-pollination. We are routinely reminded to raise our hands if there is an opportunity or location we would like to be considered for.

Describe Edelman Intelligence in three words.

Strategic, Out-of-the-box, Open

Working in research and analytics: accident or design?

Complete accident — I just kept following what made sense in terms of what I was good at and what was interesting to me. Like 90% of researchers, if I wasn’t in this profession, I would probably be considered quite creepy — I love and can’t help but watch and analyze people’s behavior and trends. I love not just solving problems—but figuring out how to solve them.

Describe your typical work day in 5 emojis or less:

#1 passion project you are working on right now:

We are currently helping a client develop and validate a year-long campaign strategy, creating a proprietary piece of IP to support the campaign, and setting up a holistic measurement framework to support and measure the campaign activities, all within a completely integrated Edelman team — my dream scenario ?

In your opinion, the coolest thing happening in the world of intelligence right now is…

… the colliding of a huge variety of data sources and sets — giving us the ability to understand the world and people from more angles than ever before.